THE heartbroken owner of a much loved family pet sentenced to death yesterday, has vowed to fight the decision and bring home the dog she loves.

Lennox the dog was declared to be a pitbull-type and seized from his owner, west Belfast woman Caroline Barnes, in May last year under the Dangerous Dogs Act, by dog wardens from Belfast City Council.

Yesterday at Belfast Magistrate’s court, Magistrate Mr Nixon heard from dog expert Peter Tallack, who said Lennox had demonstrated “total unpredictably” when examined, and had lunged at him from a metal cage.

Mr Tallack, speaking for the council, said: “There is no way in this world that dog would be safe in a domestic situation. It’s just not worth the risk.”

The defence’s dog expert, David Ryan, said Lennox would not be a risk of members to the public if muzzled and kept on a lead.

He conceded that in the short term, Lennox should be kept away from strangers and undergo treatment for his low confidence and fear of strangers.

On the stand, his owner said Lennox had been a loving pet for the past five years. While Miss Barnes, who has years of experience looking after dogs, conceded that it was possible Lennox could bite a stranger, she said her pet would “never be given the opportunity” because he was kept muzzled and on a lead when out.

Addressing the court, Mr Nixon said Lennox was a pitbull-type dog and so dangerous per se, and “totally unpredictable with strangers”. He said he no choice but to order the destruction of the animal.

Speaking to the News Letter outside court, a tearful Miss Barnes said she felt like she had failed as a mother.

She vowed to appeal yesterday’s decision, and said she hoped her decision to fight on would be of some comfort to her disabled 12-year-old daughter Brooke, who is very close to Lennox.

“I really don’t know how I’m going to tell her,” she said. “The parent is the one who’s supposed to protect the child and fix things. But I’ve told her I would bring Lennox home and I’ve failed in that. We just love and miss him so much - we just want him home.”

Miss Barnes saw Lennox for the first time in ten months yesterday when she was shown a video clip of him.

“He is grossly overweight, he just doesn’t look like the same dog,” she said.

The Save Lennox campaign has attracted support from tens of thousands of people worldwide, thanks to a website and facebook site.

Speaking after the destruction order was issued yesterday, a spokesperson for Belfast City Council said that while they appreciated the ruling would be upsetting for Lennox’s owners, the right decision had been made.

The spokesperson said several council employees had endured a “relentless campaign of intimidation and abuse” throughout the legal proceedings.

Threatening letters, including one drenched in petrol, were put through the letter boxes of two female officers and another member of staff had her car tyres slashed outside her home.

The spokesperson said: “This kind of intimidation against our staff is to be utterly condemned, and it is totally unacceptable that officers, who are enforcing the law as they are required to do, should be subjected to such a sustained and threatening campaign.”

I always liked the UK because they seemed to value reasonableness above much else. But this is so totally unreasonable and has gone on for so, so long...

"In these bodies, we will live; in these bodies we will die.Where you invest your love, you invest your life." --Marcus Mumford

amalie79 wrote:I always liked the UK because they seemed to value reasonableness above much else. But this is so totally unreasonable and has gone on for so, so long...

The UK has a ban on carrying any knives in public, including pocket knives less than three inches long, and a few years ago considered banning kitchen knives.

Their laws are REALLY screwed up.

As for this, the guy met the dog through the crate - barrier frustration anyone? Though it does sound like the dog isn't all that safe to be around in the first place...

Eek! Good thing I didn't know that about knives back when I lived there! I got rid of my pepper spray before I moved, but kept my knife...They have very few problems with gun violence (I'm a girl who likes her guns, but I have to say I always felt safe in that respect there).

At any rate, they do have some ridiculous laws, but as a culture, I found them to be so polite, so reasonable, so surprisingly laid back, so long as you behaved politely!

It's my end goal to buy a home there-- a second home or retirement...or to just move back and work there. But if I can't take the dogs with me, then it's a no go. Stories like this one break my heart. Though, again, in England my understanding is that you have to be compelled to hand over your dog and then if there's been no complaints or problems, the dog is generally put on an exceptions list and has to be muzzled and leashed when in public. That's the part, as I understand it, that N Ireland isn't following in quite the same way.

The DDA is notoriously a bad law-- they're in the process of repealing it and replacing it with something that's more owner centered. and I've found it sort of funny (if typical and, well, reasonable given the circumstances) that they keep making these exceptions that prove how ineffective it is.

And-- yeah. A dog that's lived in a home is suddenly in a cage surrounded by strangers? No sh*t he's going to act a little crazy.

"In these bodies, we will live; in these bodies we will die.Where you invest your love, you invest your life." --Marcus Mumford